How to Catch a Falling Star
by Jcthegirl
Summary: "At sixteen, he wasn't idly watching stars fall or disappear. He was putting them back into the sky." Sora-centric.


_how to catch a falling star. _

* * *

><p>He was only six.<p>

"Wow!"

A blaze ripped across the sky. Sora had never seen the sky fall apart that way (and it wasn't going to be the last time he did either).

"What? Did you see something?" Kairi was just as excited as he was.

"Yeah! There's stuff falling out of the sky!" He pointed in vain, for it had already disappeared. If it had been the cloud that had taken it from the sky, he wished he could pull it apart, because he would tear apart the sky for his friends.

"There's nothing there," she sighed. "I really wanted to see the shooting stars."

"I'll - I'll show you!" His little hand was in a tight fist, and he waved his wooden sword stubbornly. He didn't want his friends to think him a liar. He was Sora, and Sora wasn't a liar. "I'll find it!"

"That's impossible. The chances you'll find it-"

Sora cut Riku off. "Are great, 'cause I'm gonna find it."

"You promise?" Kairi looked at him seriously, holding out a slim pinky finger. Riku watched with a small smirk as Sora nodded.

"Promise." He wrapped the pinky with his own.

He never did find the falling star that night.

_xxx_

He was only thirteen.

At thirteen, stars didn't shoot across the sky or even fall anymore. They just disappeared.

"Hey, Kairi?"

"Hm?"

They usually weren't out at night, but their parents let them stay out a little later each year they grew. Sora didn't feel grown on the inside. Riku still teased him about the outside.

"You might think I'm crazy, but..." He scratched his head embarrassedly, like he always did. "I could have sworn that there was a star right there the other night. Between those two bright ones."

She looked at him so strangely, he felt that she was finding the fact he bothered to look at stars anymore was more bizarre than the fact a star could possibly be gone.

"Maybe," she said finally, and she gave him that "Oh, Sora" look that he both hated and loved before turning out to the stars again. His face blazed with embarrassment, hotter than those stars could have been, because they never seemed to burn the sky the way they used to.

But he was right.

_xxx_

He was only fifteen.

At fifteen, stars weren't even there anymore. The only stars boys his age seemed to see were ones in the people on TV and in now grown up girls and in cars and in computers. Sora still was building rafts on a childhood island with his childhood friends, who he was faintly surprised stuck around that long.

It was decided - he was going to find that star, maybe even just a star, half because of that old promise, half because of the adventure of it all, and all because of Kairi. It had to have landed somewhere out there. There had to be more than islands caught up in a sea of loneliness.

But then Riku left and the darkness replaced him, and they never got aboard that raft. It was then he realized there really were a lot more stars beyond his.

He wondered if some six year old out there had seen his star falling and hoped to catch it, but found his hands as empty as the sky.

And then Sora's home was gone.

_xxx_

He was only sixteen.

At sixteen, he wasn't idly watching stars fall or disappear. He was putting them back into the sky.

_xxx_

He was only somewhere between sixteen and seventeen.

At this in between, he didn't get to see the stars at all. He was put into a long sleep for the entire time.

Sometimes, he saw stars in his dreams. They always seemed a little bit duller.

_xxx_

He was only seventeen.

At seventeen, he didn't get to look at the stars anymore, yet he wasn't anything like the others. But he found that some of those fallen stars - they weren't stars at all. They were people.

Some of these stars had fallen long, long ago. Some he watched fall. Some fell because of him, for him.

He didn't feel like one, not after all this, but people seemed to think he was one, except he shined much, much brighter.

When he finally came back and saw Kairi again, he thought to himself, _I finally found you those stars._

_xxx_

He was eighteen.

At eighteen, he found there were so many more stars in the sky. It had taken some time, but he had learned how to catch the stars, and he placed them back into the sky one by one. All the stars.

Sora once had to catch those of the people he loved. It all seemed like so, so long ago.

With so many stars around, his seemed to blaze less bright than usual, and it nearly plunged into darkness. But they returned the favor.

There was a burden lifted from him that day, the burden he kept behind a smile and blue eyes. He didn't have to be that sole protector anymore, because now he wasn't the only one who knew how to catch a falling star.

_xxx_

He wasn't past eighteen.

But past eighteen, he would still be Sora, savior and star-catcher.

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><p>AN: I saw some children's book under this name and found it pretty. I dunno where this came from, it's probably 3D just getting me all inspired. (the part about Sora almost falling into darkness refers to the speculation that since "light falls into darkness," something is going to happen to Sora.)


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